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^7 




Copi/right, 1903, Lanixon Studio 

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW 



LONGFELLOW'S 
EARLY HOME 



BY 



MRS. MARY JOHNSON 

AUTHOR OF "ALOHA, AND OTHER POEMS," "HOME- 
ANCHORED," " TENT-TALKS," " MAC," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS FROM 
THE LAMSON STUDIO, PORTLAND, ME. 



BOSTON 

H. H. CARTER & CO. 

1905 



LIBRARY of 


CONGRESS 


Two Copies 


rteceived 


FEB 24 


1905 


GoyyriHiii Ldtry 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1905, 
By MARY JOHNSON. 



Noriooot) ^rtsB 
Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



Nellie ja. Palmer 

€\mt Noteg of Hongfelloba's ISarlg l^ome 

in rememliranee of another Ijome of 

10115 ago, anti ti}e Dear frientis 

ixiJjo useti to gatljer tljere — 

frieutrs for e&ermore 

to|)et|}er in tl)ig lauU or tl}e beautiful 

eountro of tl}e Begotttr 

anti tlje mang mauston^ of 

Ej}e jfatljer's ^onu 



*' Then the night shall be filled with music. 
And the cares that infest the day 
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, 
And silently steal away/' 



Illustrations 



Portrait of the Poet 


. Frontispiece 




PAGE 


Portland Head Light 


facing 7 


Longfellow Homestead 


7 


The Poet's Birthplace 


lO 


Longfellow Parlor .... 


facijig 1 3 


Longfellow Law Office . 


. - i6 


The Poet's Chair .... 


. - i8 


Longfellow Dining-room (** The Den ") 


. " 20 


Longfellow Guest Chamber 


'* 22 


- Portrait of Rev. Samuel Longfellow . 


. ** 26 


Longfellow Kitchen 


. - 30 


The Dresser .... 


33 


Evangeline (I) 


facing 48 


Evangeline (II) . 


. - 52 



y 



Copyright, 1903, Lamson Studio 

Longfellow Homestead, Congress Street, Portland 



Longfellow's Early Home 

WHAT a beautiful city ! 
This is one's first thought of 
Portland when once out of range 
of the wharves and railroads. Driving in 
from Cape Elizabeth, crossing the long iron 
bridge that marks the boundary between 

7 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

Portland and Willard, and then the railroad 
bridge, you climb a steep, gravelly hill, and 
turn into State Street. It would be hard to 
find a prettier street in any city. Clean and 
wide, with magnificent trees on either hand, 
handsome houses of brick and stone, many 
of them half covered with a luxuriant growth 
of ivy or woodbine, with spacious, well- 
kept lawns ; here and there an old-fashioned 
wooden dwelling, in contrast but not out 
of harmony ; frequent glimpses of the sea, 
and everywhere its salt fragrance. 

As you leave State Street and cross the 
square, you have full view of the Longfellow 
statue, perfect in form and feature. 

On Congress Street stands the Longfellow 
mansion, not the birthplace of the Poet, but 
the home of his boyhood and youth. It was 
built by General Peleg Wadsworth in 1785 
and 1786, and was the first brick house in 
Portland. The bricks were brought from 
Philadelphia. The walls were at first laid 
8 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

sixteen inches thick ; thus the supply of 
brick was soon exhausted, and the building 
had to be deferred till the next spring. 

Hon. Stephen Longfellow was married 
to Zilpah Wadsworth in the parlor of this 
house, January i, 1804 '-> ^^ey went to house- 
keeping, about a year later, at the corner of 
Congress and Temple streets. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, their sec- 
ond son, was born in the house on Fore 
Street, corner of Hancock, shown in the 
photograph. The room was in the second 
story, front, at the right. Mrs. Samuel 
Stephenson, a sister of Stephen Longfellow, 
had invited her brother and his wife with 
their child to stay with her the winter of 
1 806-1 807, as her husband was in the West 
Indies on a matter of business, and it was 
lonely for her in the large house. 

February 27 the Poet was born. The 
wooden cradle in which he and all the Long- 
fellow children were rocked stands in the 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

guest-chamber of the house in Congress 
Street. Thither he was brought when less 
than a year old ; thus his earliest recollec- 
tions clustered about this house, which was 




Copyr\ciht, 1903, Lamson JStudio 

The Poet's Birthplace : House in Fore Street 

really his home for many years. It had 
been the home of Lieutenant Henry Wads- 
worth, for whom he was named ; also the 
birthplace, in 1790, of Commodore Alexander 
S. Wadsworth. It was that of Annie Long- 
10 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

fellow Pierce in 1811 ; she died in the same 
house in 1 901, at the age of ninety, having 
given it to the Maine Historical Society, 
on condition of keeping it in good preserva- 
tion. 

The house is plain and substantial, in- 
doors and out. It stands next the Preble 
House, and in the immediate vicinity of 
many stylish and handsome dwellings ; but 
its charm would only be diminished were 
its individuality and old-time characteristics 
changed. There is an enclosed yard in 
front ; from the gate a brick walk to the 
porch. 

The door is low-silled and has the old- 
time heavy knocker. There are five locks 
and bolts of different sizes, put on from 
time to time. The house was originally of 
two stories ; later, a third was built, as seen 
in the picture. 

The entrance hall leads directly through 
the house to the garden door. The outlook 
II 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

is charming as one comes in from the busy, 
bustling street. It seems hke a peep into 
fairy-land. A flowering grape-vine covers a 
pretty arbor and reaches to the side wall of 
the house. It does not bear, but the blossoms 
are very pretty, rather peculiar, too, for they 
are greenish white. The fragrance is exquisite. 
The vine flowers early in the spring ; but 
during the summer the foliage is very 
attractive. 

In the hall is a portrait of the Poet's 
father. At the right is the stairway, straight 
and easy, the carpet fastened by old-fashioned 
brass stair-rods. At the landing is an oil 
portrait of Longfellow when a professor at 
Bowdoin College, wearing the gown, and 
looking young and handsome. He was 
then about twenty-three. Here, too, is a 
bust of later date, and very good. 

In all the rooms of the first and second 
stories are open fireplaces and andirons, with 
backlog and forestick laid ready to light, 

12 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

just as in the olden time. Shovel and tongs 
are on either hand, and in one room a pair 
of bellows. The parlor has brass andirons 
and a fireboard in fan shape. 

This parlor, in which several weddings 
have occurred, was the largest in the city 
at the time it was built. The first piano 
owned in Portland (a Chickering) found 
place there. From all the front windows of 
the house the view was then open to the sea. 
A glimpse can be had now from the second 
and third stories. The windows have in- 
side wooden shutters, and wide, cushioned 
window-sills, where one may sit com- 
fortably. 

In the parlor is a portrait of Stephen 
Longfellow ; also one in crayon of the Poet ; 
but the portrait the family like best, painted 
by his son Ernest, is in the study. Here, 
also, is the portrait of Annie Longfellow 
Pierce, his sister and the donor of the house. 
You do not find a picture of Longfellow's 

13 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

mother except a silhouette. Probably there 
is none the family liked to spare from their 
own keeping. 

Hawthorne was Longfellow's classmate 
and intimate friend. His picture is in the 
parlor, also a pretty one of Evangeline, and 
a painting of a fisherman busy with his nets, 
his wife and child by his side. 

There is a silhouette of General Wads- 
worth, with ruffled shirt-front, cue, and 
military hat. The hat is of the fashion of 
the time, resembling an old lady's bonnet, 
so much so that a visitor, not noticing the 
inscription, asked if that were the likeness 
of some old lady. 

In one window is a square, red cushion, 
made from the curtains of the First Parish 
Church (Unitarian), the one the Longfellow 
family attended. 



14 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

In a small, square frame on the wall is the 
following letter : — 

The Church in Duxbury to the First Church 
in Portland. 

Whereas Peleg Wadsworth and Elizabeth his 
wife, members of our Society, request Dismis- 
sion from 0U7' Body & Recommendation to '^our 
Communion, — They are therefore dismissed 
and recommended with our esteem and Charity 
— We subscribe 

Your Brethren in the Faith of the Messiah 
and hope of Immortality. 

The vote of the Church. 

John Allyn, Moderator, 
Oct. 25, 1789- 



Letter recommendatory 
FROM 7 Chh. in 

DUXBOROUGH. 



15 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

A very handsome, illustrated edition of 
Longfellow's poems, complete in three large 
volumes, bound in garnet and gold, is lent 
by Elizabeth Longfellow, his niece. 

The parlor doors have the old-time heavy 
lock outside the panels, with brass handles 
like those on a bureau of that day except 
that they are smaller. 

The room at the right as you enter the 
house was originally Stephen Longfellow's 
law office. It was afterward the family 
sitting room, then the Poet's study, and of 
late has been used as a dining room. It was 
especially convenient for this when Mrs. 
Pierce kept house here, as the small room 
adjoining, and opening from it, was easily 
converted into a china closet. It has an 
outside door facing the street, and in the 
picture looks like a porch or vestibule as it 
really was. It was built by the Poet's father 
as an entrance to his law office. A window 
opposite the door gives a pleasant outlook 
i6 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

on the garden. The room has now shelves, 
dressers, and drawers, and is a very pretty 
china closet. 

In the study stands Stephen Longfellow's 
own chair, of mahogany and haircloth, studded 
with brass nails. Here, also, near his favorite 
front window, is the Poet's favorite easy-chair, 
of the very oldest fashion : mahogany, with 
arms and high back, covered with cretonne. 
His mother's work-stand is between the front 
windows, and over it a mirror used in his 
grandmother's time. It is in a gilt frame, 
with a painted picture at the top and a row 
of small gilt balls. The writer remembers 
one very similar, and also a larger one which 
was in its time esteemed very elegant, — a 
gilt frame, ornamented at the top with a 
bunch of gilt grapes on a gilt panel. 

In one corner is a set of shelves for books. 
Among these Adams' beautiful allegory, 
"The Distant Hills," seems like the greeting 
of an old friend. There is a large table with 

17 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

reading lamp, also a handsome sideboard, com- 
bined with desk and bookcase. On each side 
is a locked closet with drawer above. The cen- 
trepiece looks like a deep drawer, but when 
opened discloses a desk leaf, pigeonholes, 
and small drawers. In the upper part, 
which was an addition later, are four doors 
with glass front and green lining. It is 
convenient either for books or silver. 

The family were accustomed to gather 
here for the evening. The boys used to 
study and play games. Sometimes their 
father was busy with legal papers, and they 
then adjourned to the kitchen or upstairs. 
From the study a small, square entry, with 
shelves built into the wall at the side, leads 
into the kitchen. 

On the other side of the hall is the dining 
room of former days — " the Den " as it was 
often called. Here stands the desk Long- 
fellow used in his early home. 

^' The Rainy Day " was written here in 
i8 - 



K_ 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

1 841. A written copy, but not in his hand, 
is fastened to the door at the right of the 
open fireplace. On the left is a smaller and 
narrower door opening to a chimney closet, — 
a common arrangement in old-time houses. 
It was used to keep food from freezing, and 
was often called the " pie closet." 

Over the mantel is an oil painting, a good 
one, of the Presumpscot River and its sur- 
roundings, now Riverton Park in Portland. 
Presumpscot is the Indian and poetic name. 
The view was taken from " Pride's Bridge," 
as it was called, a family by the name of Pride 
living in the neighborhood. There is also a 
picture of the interior of a Capuchin convent, 
the monks at prayer. 

Probably a number of Longfellow's poems 
were written on the desk in this room. " The 
Battle of Lovell's Pond " was written when 
he was a boy of thirteen, and kept secret 
from all the family except his sister Eliza- 
beth, till it appeared anonymously in the 

19 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

Portland Gazette. Thirty-eight years after- 
ward he wrote " Changed." 

"Musings" and "The Lighthouse" 
were written in the home at Portland, 
probably in one of the front chambers, 
where the windows have the best outlook 
toward the sea. 

Some lines from both these poems are 
written on a card, and placed in one of 
these windows. Portland Head Light is 
worthy even of his pen : — 

** The rocky ledge runs far into the sea ; 
And on its outer point, some miles away. 
The Lighthouse hfts its massive masonry, 
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day." 

The front southeast room over the study 
was the guest-chamber ; and here the Poet 
brought his bride, September, 1831. 

The bureau is of dark mahogany with 

brass handles. In one drawer are babies' 

embroidered caps, worn by different little 

ones in the family. One, lined with lilac 

20 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

silk, is marked with the Poet's name. In 
another drawer are various fancy articles of 
home making : a swan pin-cushion, a green 
one simulating a leaf, needle-books, thimble- 
case, and others, including that bete noire of 
little girls in New England's past days — 
the sampler. 

On the bureau top stand an oil lamp or 
two, and a vase filled with paper lamp- 
lighters, as they were called. They were 
then in general use, and often made by the 
children of a family. 

The old-fashioned, canopied bed, with its 
dainty white curtains, soft pillows, and pretty 
figured coverlet, has a beauty and elegance 
of its own that our modern furniture can 
never rival. At one side stands a three- 
cornered wash-stand of dark wood, with 
pitcher and basin of dark blue and white 
crockery. It is matter of regret that this 
is not included in the photograph of the 
room. It certainly ranks among the house- 

21 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

hold articles the grandmothers in our midst 
remember, and to-day is not often seen. 
The writer has one which was in use more 
than a hundred years ago, and is the exact 
counterpart of the one in the Longfellow 
mansion, even to the dark blue pitcher and 
bowl. 

The front southwest chamber was " moth- 
er's room." In a wardrobe are a dozen or 
more dresses worn by the Wadsworth and 
Longfellow ladies long ago. Most of them 
are beautiful silks and brocades, with " baby- 
waist" and sleeves puffed at the shoulder. 
There are several bonnets ; and strange they 
seem now as to form. There is a very 
handsome silk pelisse, worn by the Poet's 
mother. It is a peculiar shade, as nearly 
as it can be described, a silvery gray, verg- 
ing upon ecru. A silk bonnet to match, 
and worn with it, is in form much like the 
sunbonnets of to-day. A pair of tiny shoes, 
with pointed toes and high heels, were worn 

22 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

by Mrs. Peleg Wadsworth (the Poet's grand- 
mother), in 1775, in camp at Dorchester 
Heights. 

In this room are two pictures of the home 
in Hiram, Maine, where the Wadsworth 
family hved for many years. One is a very 
pretty view of the house and grounds ; the 
other an interior, the hall of the house. 

Between the front windows of this room 
stands an old-fashioned, pretty work-stand, 
with two drawers and folding leaves. 

Here are a doll's canopied bedstead and 
bed, very dainty and very old, that delighted 
the hearts of the little folk away back in the 
Wadsworth family. Ladies' handkerchiefs 
are the exact size to serve as linen sheets ; 
blanket, quilt, and trimmed pillow-cases, just 
as mother's hands would make them ; and 
the sheer white muslin curtains, looped back 
with ribbon, in the artistic fashion of the 
time, leave nothing to be desired by any 
little lady, mother and lover of dolls. You 

23 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

do not wonder that a tiny note lies on the 
coverlet, — " Please do not handle." There 
is also a group of three tiny wooden dolls, 
age unknown. 

In this room is a model of the First 
Parish Church to which the Longfellow 
family made their Sunday pilgrimage, "in 
the days of auld lang syne." It is two- 
storied, painted white, with belfry, spire, and 
clock. It has three porches with dark green 
doors, not folding but single, and many win- 
dows. The pews were square. The foot- 
stove has been kept which the Poet used 
to carry into the pew every Sunday for his 
mother. 

The new church, built on the site of the 
old, is a handsome structure of stone, lav- 
ishly overgrown with woodbine. It is but 
little distance from the Longfellow home- 
stead. 

The first bell ever rung in Maine for a 
church service was rung from the bell-tower 

24 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

of the First Parish Church. The bell was 
brought from England. The church was 
built in 1740. In 1775 it was pierced with 
cannon-shot from Mowatt's fleet. At the 
time of the embargo, just after the tea was 
thrown overboard in Boston Harbor, the 
bell was muffled and rung all one day, 
from sunrise to sunset, in turn, by the 
men of Falmouth, as Portland was then 
called. 

The new granite church was built in 1825, 
on the site of the wooden one. The First 
Parish must have believed in retaining a 
faithful minister, for from 1727 to 1864, 
a period of one hundred and thirty-seven 
years, they had only four pastors. 

Next to the mother's room is the one 
occupied by Mrs. Annie Longfellow Pierce. 
The furniture of these two rooms, of course, 
is nearly all removed ; but in Mrs. Pierce's 
room is a cabinet containing various articles 
which were used in the Wadsworth and 

25 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

Longfellow families, — Indian baskets, books, 
backgammon board, dumb-bells, spool- 
boxes, and the like, — not remarkable except 
for association. 

From " the boys' room '* the Cove was in 
plain sight, beyond were fields and wood- 
lands, and in the distance Mount Washing- 
ton. No wonder that two poets grew up 
amid such surroundings and in this home. 
Those of us who had the good fortune to 
hear the dearly loved minister. Rev. Samuel 
Longfellow, many times, cannot soon forget 
the rare quality of his se-rmons. W^hile 
always thoroughly practical, and in the high- 
est degree helpful to a truly religious life, 
yet they were prose poems. And though 
of necessity fewer than those of his gifted 
brother, his hymns and other poems have 
their own equal charm. Among the treas- 
ures of the house is an excellent photograph 
taken in his later years. And a member of 
the family has lent the portrait painted some 
26 




Copyright, 1903, Lamson Studio 

REV. SAMUEL LONGFELLOW 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

time earlier by his artist nephew, Ernest 
Longfellow. 

Long be remembered his gentle courtesy, 
his genial nature, his spirit of reverence, trust, 
and truest charity ! 

The beautiful hymn written by his brother 
for his ordination must now be regarded as 
a prophecy. 

** Christ to the young man said: * Yet one thing more ; 
If thou wouldst perfect be. 
Sell all thou hast and give unto the poor. 
And come and follow Me ! ' 

** Within this temple Christ again, unseen. 
Those sacred words hath said. 
And His invisible hands to-day have been 
Laid on a young man's head. 

** And evermore beside him on his way 
The unseen Christ shall move. 
That he may lean upon His arm, and say, 
* Dost thou, dear Lord, approve ? ' 

** Beside him at the marriage feast shall be. 
To make the scene more fair ; 

27 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

Beside him in the dark Gethsemane 
Of midnight toil and prayer. 

** O holy trust ! O endless sense of rest ! 
Like the beloved John, 
To lay his head upon the Saviour's breast. 
And thus to journey on ! " 

In "the boys' room" is a large painting 
of " The Bombardment of TripoH," when 
Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth was routing 
the pirates. The night of September 4, 1 804, 
he and his men sacrificed their own Hves in the 
fire-ship Intrepid, She was blown up rather 
than have her captured by the enemy. What 
a sad comment on the fortunes of war — yes, 
on its nature — that the promising young life 
should go out so early ! Those other lives, 
too, not so well known, but as dear in their 
homes ; and in such a terrible way — literally 
by fire ! 

The Secretary of the Navy sent a bronze 
medal in recognition of Lieutenant Wads- 
28 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

worth's courage. The medal and the secre- 
tary's letter are kept here. It was for the 
young officer that the Poet was named. 

In this room, too, are the silhouettes of 
Longfellow's class in Bowdoin College, 1825. 
Among these was George Pierce, an intimate 
friend of the Poet, and afterward the hus- 
band of Annie Longfellow. Less than three 
years after their marriage he died, and Mrs. 
Pierce returned to her old home. Eighty- 
seven years of the ninety which were hers 
she lived in this house. 

Two small panes of glass in the upper 
part of the door from " the boys' room " 
serve to Hght the back entry and stairs. 
This was needful, for the stairs are, as 
commonly built in those days, steep and 
dark. Here, also, is the stairway leading to 
the third story. The windows at the back 
of the house have the old-fashioned, small, 
square panes. Two leather fire-buckets 
marked " S. Stephenson " hang on the wall, 
29 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

and two others marked " Longfellow," down- 
stairs. 

The wall-papers are very old-fashioned. 
Where they have been renewed, patterns 
were selected as nearly like the original 
as possible. It was ascertained that the 
paper in the dining room (the Den) could be 
cleaned, and it remains, though fifty years 
old. The pattern is a cream ground with 
green leaves and tiny flowers, pink, blue, 
and Hlac. The parlor paper has a deer 
peeping out from the forest foliage. The 
hall simulates panels. In the guest-chamber 
the design is a little shepherdess, with a lamb 
by her side and flowers in her hand. The 
writer remembers a very similar pattern in 
her grandfather's house. 

But after all, to one who finds an especial 
interest in the old-time things and ways, 
and whose memory reaches back through 
many years, not only to a grandfather's 
home, but also to a country parsonage, 

30 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

where all these were In daily use, the kitchen 
is a delight. 

The photograph is a perfect reproduction. 
It gives the brick hearth, the open fire- 
place and crane, on which hang the tea- 
kettle and dinner-kettles over backlog and 
forestick ready to light. It is intended to 
really keep a fire during the hours of exhibi- 
tion, after the cool fall weather comes. Then 
it will be even more realistic. 

At the right of the fireplace is the brick 
boiler. On the left is the cavernous brick 
oven, in which was done the family bak- 
ing, and whence came forth every week 
a vast array of good things. The " tin 
kitchen " or " tin oven " — for it was called 
by either name — stands on the hearth. A 
spit runs through the centre. A roast of 
beef, a leg of mutton, a turkey or pair of 
chickens, used to be spitted, set before the 
fire, turned on the spit at frequent intervals, 
sprinkled with flour, and " basted " with 

31 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

butter. In an hour or more it was served, 
hot, brown, delicious ! 

Near the tin kitchen is a charcoal-burner, 
similar in its use. A gridiron and long- 
handled toaster standing on four feet, a 
lantern, a foot-stove, two or three sauce- 
pans and skillets, are in evidence. By 
the way, the skillet was a very convenient 
article. 

It was rather small, but deep, with three 
feet, a cover, and long handle. It could be 
set directly on live coals to boil eggs, milk, 
or porridge, or down on the hearth when 
only needed to keep something warm. 

On the shelves over the fireplace are a 
tea-tray and a large " platter," covered por- 
ringers, a mortar and pestle, a sugar-scoop, 
and a coffee-mill. Every family then bought 
coffee in the berry, and roasted and ground 
it at home, a little at a time, thus getting it 
pure and strong. Above the shelf hangs a 
small bell, communicating with some other 

32 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

part of the house. There are two chimney 
cupboards. 




Copyruj/it, luu:J, Lum-^uu Studio 

The Dresser 

In the back of the fireplace is the figure 
of a fish on an iron plate, set in the brick- 

33 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

work. There are waffle-irons, a coffee- 
roaster, an apple-roaster, candle-moulds, and 
the balances in which the newly arrived little 
folks were weighed. There is a plate-heater ; 
this is a sort of miniature cupboard with tiny 
shelves, to stand before the open fire, very 
convenient to keep pies warm during the 
first part of the dinner, or the dinner itself 
for a belated member. 

The dresser at the side of the kitchen is 
supplied with dishes of various kinds, all of 
them old-fashioned in form and coloring, — 
pitchers and mugs, bowls and covered jars, 
cups and saucers, soup-tureen, canisters for 
tea and coffee. At each side of the dresser 
hang several tin dish-covers, that were used 
on the table to keep the meat and vegetables 
hot. Here, too, is the bread-tray used in 
the banquet given in honor of Lafayette, 
when he visited Portland in 1825, and the 
Poet's father gave the address of welcome. 

Zilpah Wadsworth, at twenty-one, stand- 

34 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

ing on the front doorstep of the Portland 
homestead, presented a flag to the Federal 
Volunteers. The house seems to be set 
low. It formerly was three or four feet 
above the street. But the street was raised 
and the stone covered. New steps were 
made. Not long ago, when the house was 
repaired, the stone was raised, and is now 
again the doorstep. 

In February, 1781, General Wadsworth, 
then commanding the forces of the Maine 
coast, was surprised at night by British sol- 
diers, at his house in Thomaston, with only 
a few of his men. He was captured, and 
conveyed to Fort George, Castine. His 
friend, Major Burton, was with him. They 
contrived, with such tools as they could get, 
working at night, to make an aperture, filling 
it with bread from their rations, for daylight 
view. At last, a night in June, just before 
the ship sailed which was intended to carry 

35 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

him to England, he succeeded in getting 
outside the walls. He swam across the bay, 
now called Wadsworth's Cove, from Block 
Point, reached the mainland, and a little 
later his camp, in safety. Major Burton 
also escaped. The story varies slightly in 
detail, but this is the way the people of 
Castine have it. 

In 1790 General Wadsworth bought from 
the state of Massachusetts seventy-five hun- 
dred acres of wild land in the township now 
called Hiram, on the Saco River. It cost 
something less than one thousand dollars, 
as twelve and a half cents an acre was the 
price. Hiram is thirty-six miles from Port- 
land. In 1800 he began to build a large 
house on this land, which he had previously 
been clearing. It is yet standing, and is a 
mile from the village, a very pretty place. 
The clay for the bricks to use in the chimneys 
came by boat, three miles down the Saco 
River. The house is two stories, with a bal- 

36 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

ustrade on the ridge between the chimneys. 
The kitchen is one story, and spacious, with 
an immense chimney and fireplace. Here 
it is easy to sit Hterally in the chimney- 
corner by the fire. 

The youngest son, Peleg, at the time of 
the building of the house, was only seven 
years old. One day his father, when going 
to ride on horseback to the town for the 
mail, left him with orders to watch the fires 
in eleveyi fireplaces. They were kindled to 
dry the fresh masonry. Years later this 
son said it was the greatest weight of re- 
sponsibility he had ever felt in his life. 
No wonder ! It was indeed far too heavy 
a burden for such young shoulders. Not 
many children would be set a similar task 
to-day. 

The Wadsworth family removed into the 
country in 1807, and Stephen Longfellow 
and his wife took the Portland homestead. 
The part which had been used as a store 

37 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

was moved away, and it was then that the 
vestibule was built at the east side. 

Stephen Longfellow's family had lived 
here seven or eight years when a startling 
event occurred. This was a fire in the house 
from the kitchen chimney. The servant 
girl had carelessly overheated it. The attic 
was soon in flames, but the family knew 
nothing about it till the fire burst through 
the roof. Mrs. Longfellow was sick, and 
the family physician, Dr. Weed, very fortu- 
nately, was in the house at the moment. 
Mr. Longfellow was the Chief of the Fire- 
men's Company. 

His first care, of course, was for his help- 
less wife ; but Dr. Weed said cheerily : — 

" See to the fire ; Lll take care of her." 

When it became evident that the house 
could only be saved by flooding it, Dr. 
Weed, who was a very strong man, lifted 
Mrs. Longfellow, wrapped a blanket around 
her, and carried her in his arms into the 

38 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

house of the Preble family next door, the 
one which is now a hotel. A lady, a mem- 
ber of the Preble family, then a little girl, 
remembers seeing her father standing on a 
post of the front fence, shouting orders 
through a brass trumpet to the firemen. 
The roof was nearly destroyed before the 
fire was overcome, but no one was hurt. 

The " fire-buckets," as they were called, 
belonging to Mr. Longfellow, and used at 
that time, now hang on the wall of the 
Congress Street house. They were a 
familiar sight in those days, and were kept 
where they could be reached at a moment's 
notice. The writer remembers her grand- 
father's fire-buckets always on the side of 
the front stairs. 

Instead of merely repairing the house, 
Mr. Longfellow built a third story, with a 
low, four-sided or " hipped " roof in place of 
the high, two-sided one, and with the same 
chimneys. Thus the house stands to-day. 

39 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

The second story back chamber had 
hitherto been " the boys' room," but they 
were promoted to the third, and here still 
stands the " trundle-bed," nicely made as if 
in regular use. Possibly some reader has 
not seen one of these contrivances to save 
room in large families. The trundle bed- 
stead was made like a large packing-box ; 
the one the writer remembers was square, 
but this one is longer, perhaps not quite 
so wide. The legs were very short, and 
furnished with casters. 

The bed was made in it like the berth 
of a steamboat, and the whole concern was 
rolled under the mother's bed for the day- 
time and pulled out at night. It was 
comfortable and convenient, though we 
would not now think it best for children 
to sleep so near the floor. 

The desk appropriated to the boys' use 
still stands in their room, with a large map 
in view. 

40 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

The southwest front chamber in the third 
story is the one the Poet occupied when a 
young man and always chose on his visits 
home in later years. It has an old-time 
bureau and wash-stand, with the customary 
dark blue and white pitcher and basin of 
English style. The bedstead is a veritable 
four-poster, with canopy and curtains of 
dark cretonne, and the self-same coverlet 
he used. The trunk he carried on his first 
trip to Europe is also shown. 

The southeast chamber was that of Miss 
Lucia Wadsworth, the genial, reliable auntie 
who mothered the Longfellow children of 
two generations. 

Near this room is the linen closet, large 
and convenient, with a pleasant window. 

There are some old-fashioned patchwork 
quilts, and an immense white one, closely 
resembling a Marseilles, but it was made by 
hand very long ago — probably spun and 
woven at home. It was a present to a 

41 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

member of the family on her going to 
housekeeping. 

Seven framed pictures by different artists 
represent scenes from Longfellow's poems. 
Evangeline's earnest, beautiful eyes look out 
from one. In another the children are 
gathered around the village blacksmith, 
watching him at work, while the sparks 
fly from his anvil. The Poet's little 
daughters trip down the broad stairway to 
surround him in his study. The Puritan 
maiden, Priscilla, meets her lover. There, 
too, are Hiawatha and his Indian bride. 
"The Building of the Ship," with its 
accuracy of detail, all its ideal suggestion, 
is in beautiful contrast with the quiet home 
scene, where amid the evening shadows the 
fire glows on the hearthstone, and crane and 
kettles are in readiness for daily service. 

It is remarkable that in the great fire 
of the Fourth of July, 1866, this house was 
not touched. The track of the flames swept 
42 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

very near, but just below it. It had, as it 
were, borne its share. 

The house at Hiram, Maine, has been 
open to visitors ; but it is now closed, and 
with reason. A party from a certain associa- 
tion went there one day sight-seeing. The 
balusters of the old-fashioned staircase were 
very slender. One of the men cutaway two 
of these and carried them home. He had 
them made into canes, a photograph inserted, 
either of the poet or the house, and then had 
the effrontery to send one as a present to the 
Longfellow family ! I have direct authority 
for this statement. 

A library is building, adjoining the Port- 
land mansion. The framework of the roof 
is iron. A concrete of Portland cement is 
laid over this frame, and in it are bedded 
plates of expanded iron, forming a sort of 
netting. The outside covering is of copper 

43 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

plates. The roof is at least four inches thick, 
and absolutely fireproof — the first roof of 
the kind ever made in Portland. 

" The old clock on the stairs " cannot be 
forgotten. The original, suggestive of the 
poem, is owned by a Longfellow cousin. A 
dupHcate tells the hours from the landing of 
the front stairs, halfway up, in the Poet's 
home in Cambridge. But there is still 
another clock of the same kind in Port- 
land which has a history of its own, unique 
and interesting. 

In 1791 Santo Domingo was the most 
valuable of the French provinces. The 
land was rich and fertile. The planters 
lived in royal luxury. They held unlimited 
sway, even the life of the slave depending 
on the word of the master. Among these 
planters themselves, however, there was not 
always harmony, for there was admixture 
of blood and race. Many mulattoes were 
among them, and though these possessed 
44 



LofC. 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

equal wealth with the white people, the 
caste line was severely drawn. They had 
no voice in the government. Their children 
were as well educated as the others ; they 
were sent to school in France, and they 
began to demand equality. The outcome 
was insurrection. The slaves burned and 
pillaged, and committed every sort of out- 
rage, marching over the land as incarnate 
fiends. 

The white planters fled to the towns, 
leaving their luxurious homes to be dwelt 
in and ruled by the men who had served 
them. But in the cities they were not safe, 
for the negroes again and again gathered 
their forces and sallied out on new raids. 
Finally all the white people who survived 
fled for their lives, and left them in 
undisputed sway. 

At this time a Portland sloop, commanded 
by Captain William McLellan, was in one 
of the harbors of Santo Domingo. The 

45 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

people hastened to him and entreated de- 
Hverance. He welcomed them kindly and 
took them on board. When the cargo had 
been unloaded, he allowed them to put into 
the hold their jewels and silver, and whatever 
of their most valued possessions they had 
been able to secrete and convey to the ship. 
He sailed with a crowd of refugees and 
landed them at Jamaica. There were other 
American captains whose vessels became 
arks of safety to the hunted refugees. 

Soon after Captain McLellan sailed from 
Jamaica a cask was found on board, which 
no one remembered. It was opened, and 
a package wrapped in sail-cloth taken out. 
In this was a clock movement, a very good 
one. It could not be known whether this 
was purposely left on board as a grateful 
present to the captain, or was overlooked 
in the hurry and confusion of landing. 
Captain McLellan brought it home to 
Portland and had a clock-case made. It 
46 . 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

is owned by his descendants to-day, and 
keeping good time. 

Captain William McLellan was the son 
of Bryce McLellan, who settled in Portland 
in the eighteenth century and built a house 
in York Street, which is still standing, now 
one of the oldest in the city. During all 
his active life he was a mariner. He won 
his wife by aiding her to escape from Quebec, 
when she had been captured by Indians and 
sold into servitude. 

The McLellan and Longfellow families 
were friends. One member of the McLellan 
family is in charge of the Portland house, 
and is my authority for this story of the 
clock, the oldest in the city, and twin to the 
one owned by the Poet. 

An anecdote of Longfellow, which has 
never, to the writer's knowledge, been in 
print, was told her many years ago by a 
friend then studying law in Cambridge. 

A student had been engaged in some wild 

47 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

prank ; the matter was discussed by the 
Faculty, and it was assigned to Professor 
Longfellow to " reprimand " him. tie said 
nothing about it for a day or two, till he 
happened to meet the young man in the 
museum, and alone. He greeted him with 
his accustomed kindness of manner, and 
without reference to his misconduct talked 
pleasantly with him for perhaps fifteen 
minutes, starting with something the stu- 
dent was examining when he came in ; and 
at the close of their conversation said 
quietly : " I am desired to reprimand you. 
You may consider yourself reprimanded." 

That was all. It was never mentioned 
afterward, and there was no further trouble 
with that student. 

In 1826 Longfellow made a visit in Phila- 
delphia, staying at Head's Mansion House 
in South Third Street. The closing scene in 
the poem " Evangeline," where EvangeHne 
finds her lover in the hospital, was located in 

48 



my'^'m 




Ft rnj Pictures 



Painting Inj DoiKilas 



EVANGELINE 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

that vicinity. Not far was the Lutheran 
Cemetery. It is generally supposed that the 
Friends' Hospital is the one meant ; but 
the truth in regard to this can be found in 
Louise Stockton's charming paper on Phila- 
delphia and its Charities. 

She says : — 

" Twenty years after the founding of the 
city, a wealthy clothier, a member of the 
community of Friends, owned all the land 
between Spruce and Walnut streets (paral- 
lel) and South Third and Fourth, a large, 
square area. In 1702 he died, leaving this 
land to three of his personal friends. The 
will did not specify for what purpose, but he 
had doubtless talked it over with them, and 
given them verbal directions. His confi- 
dence was not misplaced. They understood 
his design, and the result proved their trust- 
worthiness. The honest souls directly built 
a house for the poor who most needed it. 

49 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

It was long and quaint, with three windows 
each side of the door, and a southern front- 
age on what was then a green field. 

"The Monthly Meeting took charge of 
the place, and sent here certain of the poorer 
members who needed help. After a time 
they built Httle, one-storied cottages, with an 
attic in the steep roof, and a great chimney 
outside. These were ranged in order on 
either side of a green lane ; all had their 
little gardens, with trees, fruit, and flowers. 
None of the people who lived here were 
paupers. Some had a little money, and all 
worked who could. Two or three old 
women had little schools ; another made 
molasses candy. A watchmaker put his 
timepieces in one of the Walnut Street win- 
dows, and the herbs raised in the gardens 
had a virtue peculiar to themselves. 

"As the city grew around them, this small 
village seemed greener and sweeter. Little 
by little high brick houses arose around it ; 

50 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

the streets leading thither were all paved, 
and the city beat about it as an ocean about 
a lagoon. The only entrance was now up a 
little alleyway, and he who strayed in there, 
not knowing what he would find, must have 
rubbed his eyes and fancied himself be- 
witched. He came out of noise and traffic, 
from bustle and business, and suddenly 
everything was still ; the air was filled with 
the perfume of roses, bees were humming, 
old men were sitting smoking their pipes in 
grape arbors, and old Quaker ladies bending 
over beds of sweet marjoram and lavender. 
To awake and find oneself at the gates of 
Damascus were commonplace to this. 

" If the stranger were fond of Longfellow, 
he stood still and smiled, because he knew 
the place at once, and he would gently 
murmur, — 

** 'Then in the suburbs it stood, in the midst of meadows 
and woodlands ; 
Now the city surrounds it, but still, with its gateway 
and wicket, 

51 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

Meek in the midst of splendor, its humble walls seem 

to echo 
Softly the words of the Lord, ** The poor ye have 

always with you." ' 

" Then would one of these peaceful old 
men arise, and he too would smile because he 
too knew, and he would show the stranger 
the little vine-covered house to which Gabriel 
was taken, and then the place where he was 
buried. 

" ' It was all true, and Longfellow did but 
put it into verse/ 

" The stranger found it good to be there. 
Few pilgrimages rewarded so well, because 
this asked nothing of imagination ; and he 
took an ivy-leaf from the house — bought 
rosemary for a remembrance. If he were 
an artist, he made a sketch of the place, and 
if he were a writer, he published a description 
of it. 

" Every one who knew ' Evangeline,' knew 
of the ' Old Quaker Almshouse ' in Phila- 

52 



;i.kJ£. 



#.-*,■&#: 



Perry Pictures 



Painting by Faed 



EVANGELINE 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

delphia, and the story not only gave the 
inmates a certain importance in their own 
and others' eyes, but it added many a thrifty 
penny to their income. But what proof this 
pretty tale gave of an imaginative memory ! 
These clear-eyed old people knew well that 
a fever-stricken patient never was and never 
would have been taken into their asylum. 
They knew Evangeline never crossed their 
little yard nor entered their wicket, and that 
there was no grave sacred to the wanderer's 
memory in their enclosure. They knew all 
about the ' Bettering House,' once up Spruce 
Street, a few squares away, and about the 
fever patients there, and the nuns who nursed 
them. It had also once stood in the midst 
of meadows, but when the pilgrims came 
looking for the true Mecca, behold it was 
all destroyed, and built up as a city in 
bricks and cobblestones ; and then the old 
Quakers, leaning over their wicket, beckoned 
them away to a delusion." 

53 



LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 

Since the above was written Longfellow's 
flute has been sent to the Portland home ; 
also a vase from Acadia, filled with grasses 
grown there, and given to him some years 
after " Evangeline " was published. 

The flute recalls a pretty bird story. 
While the Poet was a student in Bowdoin 
College, he occupied the southwest chamber 
in the house of " Parson Titcomb," as the 
minister was oftenest called. In a pasture, 
a little distance from the house, was a group 
of fir trees, where many birds, especially 
robins, built their nests. Longfellow often 
sat at the window playing on his flute. 
With almost the first notes the robins would 
begin to sing. And they kept on singing 
as long as he played, or till the twilight 
shadows deepened into dusk. Perhaps he 
thought of their merry music when so long 
afterward he wrote the winsome poem about 
Vogelweide and his bequest to the birds. 

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